NewsbriefFebruary 11, 2010

SCR/UK RURal PhySiCian leadeRShiP PRogRam

Lexington Herald Leader

When Crystal Norgren spent a few months as a volunteer in Nepal after graduating from college, she saw how people living in poverty struggled with health care.

Now, as a student at the University of Kentucky medical school, she realizes she doesn’t have to go to Nepal to help fill the health care gap.

She can work in rural Kentucky instead.

Norgren, 27, is one of eight UK first year medical students enrolled in the Rural Physician Leadership Track -- a program in which students take their first two years of medical school in Lexington and then move to St. Claire Regional Medical Center for two years.

The idea behind the 2-year-old UK program -- and its counterpart at the University of Louisville, where students go to work at U of L’s off-campus centers in Madisonville and Glasgow -- is to give students more than a few weeks of exposure to rural practice.

While the Morehead program will not, on its own, alleviate Kentucky’s rural doctor shortage, the hope is it will identify and train medical students who have an interest in practicing outside the commonwealth’s more urban areas.

UK is raising funds to expand the program to Murray State University.

Shea Poynter, 22, of Barren County grew up on a farm and says she has “a big heart” for the rural life, which is why she signed

up for the Morehead program. “For some people, the commute is what keeps them from getting the medical care they may need,” Poynter said.

Katherine Whiting, from Summerville, S.C., embodies the kind of student the program wants: “I would love to work in rural Kentucky,” she says. “I would love to be placed in a community where people are underserved and I can really get to know the people I’m serving.”

Nathan Hudson of Greenup County is the son of a pediatrician and knows what it’s like to serve a rural community. He wants to make an impact one patient at a time. Says Hudson: “I am an Eastern Kentucky boy.”

Cas Arnold grew up in Cynthiana but commuted to Lexington schools before getting an undergraduate degree at UK. Being a doctor, he says “is really the only thing I ever wanted to do.”

He wants to practice in a community with a population between 4,000 and 12,000 in Eastern or Northern Kentucky: “You don’t want a community that’s too small ... but you want a community where you know your patients,” he said.

Says Dr. Tony Weaver of Morehead, one of the program advisers: “These are adventurous students. ... There are the hopes of an entire county or community hanging on these kids.”

AmAzing. medicine. close to Home.

NewsbriefYour Medical Center, Your News

February 11, 2010

April 1, 2010, is Census Day. Census questionnaires will be mailed or delivered to your home inMarch. The 2010 Census is safe, easy and important. Your participation is vital to your community.Census numbers are used to reapportion congressional seats, redraw legislative districts anddistribute over $400 billion in federal funds yearly. All personal census information is confidential by federal law. Take time to be counted!

It’s In Our Handswww.2010census.gov

It’s Time To Be Counted.The 2010 census questionnaire is coming.

Look for it. Fill it out. Mail it back. Help your community.

Many of you will remember doctors Dan and Joan (Cabreros) Jones who served for nearly 5 years here at St. Claire Regional in the Family Medicine Department. What you may not know is that Dan and Joan answered the call to serve in the mission fields of Africa soon after their marriage.

In July 2007, they began a 5 year term as career missionary doctors at Zimba Mission Hospital in Zambia. In a letter to Mark J. Neff, SCR President/CEO expressing their appreciation for the opportunity to be a part of SCR, they stated …”while working along side the staff of SCR, we came to realize everyone’s dedication to its mission. We have been inspired to carry the mission of St. Claire Regional to the people of Zambia”. And they concluded by stating… “We pray that God will continue to bless the mission of St. Claire Regional”.

Some of the formidable challenges faced by the people of Zambia are the HIV/AIDS pandemic, lack of access to health care, poverty, and lack of medications due to their poverty. In Zambia, 1 out of every 6 adults is HIV positive. The average life expectancy in Zambia is only 39 years, and access to life saving antiretroviral therapy is almost non-existent.

Patients there are too poor to buy essential medications. It is estimated that 63% of Zambians live on less than $1 per day. There is a critical shortage of doctors; in fact, in Zambia, there is only one doctor for every 14,285 persons. By comparison, the ratio in the U.S. is one doctor for every 358 persons.

Many persons in the Morehead community are supporting Dan and Joan with monetary contributions; however, the very primitive conditions (by our standards) there in Zambia challenge them each day to care for the ill and injured.

Just recently, Dan e-mailed Mr. Neff urgently requesting assistance in replacing the battery back-up system for their x-ray machine at the Zimba Mission Hospital. The batteries were so old that they could not be relied upon, and in fact, just after Dan’s message, one of the old batteries exploded and the entire back-up system failed. The normal electrical power to the Hospital is often interrupted, and many days there is no power at all. This critical diagnostic machine must rely on back-up power during these episodes and the batteries are mandatory for care to continue.

Mark communicated this situation to SCR Radiologists. These wonderful men immediately made a commitment to provide for the cost of replacing Zimba Mission Hospital’s battery system, and today, word came from Dan that the system has been replaced and the batteries are being charged and will be on line this coming Monday.

Thank you doctors for this wonderful gesture of support. This is just another example of the mission zeal that evidenced within the St. Claire Regional Family of Caregivers.

St. ClaiRe Regional SUPPoRtS afRiCan miSSionSubmitted by: Roger Russell

NewsbriefYour Medical Center, Your News

February 11, 2010

SCR family mediCine ReSidenCy PRogRam ReCeiveS 5-yeaR Re-aCCReditation

LIVE WELL....SLEEP WELLSleep Disorders – Breathing & Treatment

FREEH E A LT H S C R E E N I N G S

Wednesday, March 39:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

st. claire regional Family Medical supply

Available ScreeningsBlood Pressure

CholesteralGlucose

Oxygen SaturationEPWORTH Sleepiness Test

The St. Claire Regional/University of Kentucky Rural Training Track Family Medicine Residency Program has recently received a full five-year program re-accreditation through the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). Five-year accreditation is the longest cycle of accreditation allowed by the ACGME, and is a clear demonstration of a program’s quality and stability as well as of the quality of its graduates. Family medicine residency programs must undergo rigorous evaluation to ensure that they are following standards set by the Residency Review Committee in Family Medicine of the ACGME. The program at St. Claire Regional has successfully achieved full accreditation since its inception.

The SCR residency program has served as the rural training track for the University of Kentucky Family Medicine Residency

Program since 2000. The family medicine residency, a three-year program, accepts two new residents each year to become partners in delivering a healing ministry to rural populations through rural medicine. Residents spend their first year of training at the University of Kentucky and their final two years at a designated SCR Family Medicine clinic. Six residents have completed the program since 2000, two of which SCR has successfully retained to our medical staff.

Family Medicine Residency

news & events

Upcoming EvEnts

Have an upcoming event that you would like to be mentioned in the SCR Newsbrief?

Submit your article to Jessica Robinson in Marketing & PR at jlrobinson@st-claire.org. Be sure to include the name of the event, date, time, location, as well as whom to contact to receive further information.

SCR WelComeS neW Staff

George Chapman Radiology

Lesley Combs 4th Floor Nursing

Kristi Dickens Anesthesia Professionals

Roy Gavin Anesthesia Professional

Mindy Huston Nursing Administration

Tabatha Johnson CRSS

Alice Kitchen Nursing Administration

Jessica Lewis Occupational Therapy

David Lewis Environmental Services

Keshia Lykins Pharmacy

Courtney Marinaro Surgery/Same Day Surgery

Blair McKinney Patient Financial Services

Rebecca Nickell Patient Access

Ashley Peterson Radiology

Vanessa Roberts 4th Floor Nursing

Robert Stansbury Hospitalist Physician

Ashley Sublett Patient Access

Whitney Wells Food Services

Heather Wilburn Laboratory

advanCed CaRdiaC life SUPPoRt PRovideR CoURSeDate: March 4 & 5

Time: 9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Location: SCR Outreach Center

For more information contact, Loretta Burchett at 6830

9th annUal “oh BaBy, it’S a BaBy ShoWeR”Date: April 3, 2010

Time: 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 Noon

Location: Morehead Conference Center

For more information contact Leslie Williams at lkwilliams@st-claire.org or Loretta Burchett at laburchett@st-claire.org

BaSiC life SUPPoRt PRovideR CoURSeDate: April 1

Location: SCR Outreach Center

Program: 2:00 p.m.

For more information contact, Loretta Burchett at 6830